NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 108, 31 January 1935, Page 11

NEWS IN BRIEF

Unemployment Tax

As regards the excess payments of unemployment tax in advance of the legislative enactment reducing the impost from one shilling to tenpence in the £l, a departmental official explained yesterday that it is not necessary for any taxpayers who paid at the higher rate to apply for a refund. The department concerned will issue credit notes to all those who are entitled to a rebate.

The Oldest Junior. The oldest junior player who took part in the Veterans’ Day bowling tournament in Wellington yesterday was F. Witcombe, of the Newtown club. He is 81 years of age, and tlie present is his second season only.

Rotorua Thermal Wonders. Great praise for tlie beauty and thermal wonders of the Rotorua district was expressed by a party of 12 American tourists who are visiting Rotorua. On Monday the party inspected tlie Whakarewarewa Reserve, and visited the six lakes and attended a Maori concert.

Loudspeakers in Train. A loudspeaker was installed in each compartment of the train which conveyed Hamilton railway employees to their annual picnic at the Mount, Tauranga, on Sunday. The system was linked up with an amplifier in tlie guard’s van, which relayed music supplied by an orchestra and gramophone recordings. Altogether there were 36 loudspeakers, providing music for IS carriages. Picnickers expressed themselves as grateful for tins means of relieving tlie tedium of a long journey.

Low New Zealand Salaries. “New Zealand must learn to pay, and pay well,” said Dr. Bernard Myers during a luncheon address to the Overseas Club in Auckland when referring to the poor inducements to New Zealand Rhodes Scholars to return to the Dominion. “Most Rhodes Scholars leave these shores never to return,” he sab l . ■‘lnstead they should be absorbed here in industry, education, and affairs of government. But the salaries are disgracefully low.” Dr. Myers said he did not know of any other country in the world where university professors of equal eminence were paid at so low a rate as in New Zealand. Job for the Koughopieter.

After reading a recent statement by the assistant city engineer about the respective smoothness or roughness of certain road surfaces at Petone, several motorists have written in suggesting that the roughometer—the machine which records the bumps in a road surface—should be given a little exercise over Willis Street and Courtenay Place. They suggest that while a great deal of time and money is being expended on suburban roads the road surfaces of the city are beingneglected. The state of the woodblocks in Willis Street is said to be pretty bad, due to the fact that through neglect they are totally unable to resist storm water.

Virtue in Simplicity. The simple explanation is often tlie most adequate. This is exemplified in a story told by Mr. L. 11. G. Greenwood, formerly of Christchurch, who has been for 25 years n lecturer nt Cambridge University. Not long ago, said Mr. Greenwood, a Royal Commission had been set up in England to investigate the conditions under which appointments were made to the Civil Service. Many representatives of big business firms which were already taking university graduates into employment had been questioned as to wiiy they preferred university men. Most of them had .spoken at some length of “power of adaptability,” “flexibility,” and other abstract qualities; but a director of the Burma Oil Company had made the simple and logical statement: “Well, we prefer Cambridge graduates because they sell more oil.”

Prime Minister’s Opponent. The Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, is likely to find himself opposed at the next elections by one of the best shearers in the Hurunui electorate, says the “Christchurch Star.” This is Mr. Gordon (“Kaikoura”) Hamilton, who was “ringer” at St. Helens station, Hanmer, for the season just ended. Though a studious young man, Mr. Hamilton can take off a fleece witii the best of them. He has specialised in political economy lately, and will probably make his strongest attack against the Government’s mortgage policy. One qualification at least is that he is practically inu-ed to the ribaldry of the merciless multitude, as he worked at the “demonstration pen” at St. Helens and had to suffer the ready chaffing of his mates on the one hand and tlie curious stares of daily visitors, mostly female, on the other. Mr. Hamilton will stand as an Independent Labour candidate